Video: Gator breaks into family's screened-in porch

by Caroline Balchunas

(Courtesy: Susie Polston)

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCIV) - A Mount Pleasant, South Carolina family got an early Easter surprise. Around 1:30 Sunday morning, Susie Polston woke up to hear rumbling outside her bedroom door. She thought either it was her daughter moving furniture or an intruder. Turns out, it was both, but not exactly what she expected.

All that racket was coming from a 9-foot alligator thrashing on Steve and Susie Polston’s back porch.

“We thought it was a joke maybe and we knocked on the window and it moved. So we were like, 'no, this is a serious prank if somebody did this,'” Steve said.

With just one glass door separating them and the gator, they immediately called authorities.

The gator made its way up 15 steps, broke through a locked screen door, and broke tables and other porch items before resting on the farthest side of the porch.

“We were in disbelief that he actually made his way up the stairs, because we didn’t know alligators would climb stairs,” Susie said.

On Monday, they hired help to replace the door with something more “gator-proof.”

After seven years at their RiverTowne Country Club home, they’ve seen their fair share of wildlife inside and outside their home, including a copperhead, rattlesnake, turtles, duck and geese.

“If you’re playing golf, you’ll see three or four (alligators) on the course any given day,” Steven said. “That’s not unusual.”

But this was a first and hopefully their last alligator at home.

“I feel like I’ll never be able to open these doors again without coming through here and looking out. here and scanning the whole porch,” Susie said.

For hours, a DNR wildlife specialist tried to steer the gator outside. But, eventually the gator was killed, deemed too dangerous to handle. DNR said the gator was likely making a migratory mating route from one pond to the other and somehow got lost and confused.